Should the NBA followed MLB's model and have only four teams

Rupert Murdoch · Post #1 » by **Rupert Murdoch** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:24 am

make the playoffs from each conference every year? Let's face the facts. There are only five or six teams in any given year that have a legitimate shot at taking home the title. It doesn't make much sense to have 16 playoff teams. If the NBA has only eight teams make the playoffs every year, every regular season NBA game becomes more meaningful. There will be fewer teams who play like they're on auto-pilot. The NBA playoffs is way too long anyway. What's wrong with reducing a couple weeks to the postseason?

monopoman · Post #2 » by **monopoman** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:29 am

Stern likes long playoff series and lots of them for the money reasons.

Its pretty damn obvious this is true.

Since his arrival they have added MORE games to the playoff series using a best of 7 in even the first round.

Rupert Murdoch · Post #3 » by **Rupert Murdoch** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:33 am

Stern likes long playoff series and lots of them for the money reasons.

Its pretty damn obvious this is true.

Good reasoning. It's just that in a sport where the gap between the top 5-6 teams and the rest of the league is cavernous, it never made a lot of sense to have so many teams make the playoffs every year.

Narcist · Post #4 » by **Narcist** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:33 am

Not unless they want to lose a lot of money and fan support...regardless of your thoughts this is a dumb idea all around. We have seen good series bewteen low seeds versus high seeds hell OKC gave the lakers a run for their money last year at the 8th seed and a few years ago Atlanta took boston to game 7 and chicago did the same I believe. Regardless suffering a few teams playing on autopliot versus better playoffs i'll go with the latter.

Using the MLB model for anything is a bad idea.

SaveOurBullets · Post #5 » by **SaveOurBullets** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 5:08 am

^I could argue that the NBA model is bad for anything as well. People are always defending what the league is doing by using money as a reason...last time I checked, the NBA was doing horribly in the financial department. Maybe it's time to experiment with some things.

Teams going on autopilot is bad as well. For at least a few teams, the regular season is meaningless. That is a HUGE problem. Seriously, I heard a bunch of people talking about how the Lakers and especiall the Celtics should essentially coast through the season without really trying, then wait until the playoffs. Can anyone else see how bad that is?

Post #6 » by **darth_federer** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:22 am

No. Then I wouldnt watch the league.

hugolizard · Post #7 » by **hugolizard** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:32 am

Making the playoffs alone is a goal or an accomplishment for a lot of teams in the league but then your suggestion would put so many teams out of the playoffs hunt 1/2 way through the season. Wouldn't be a fun league to watch for me.

Jugs · Post #8 » by **Jugs** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:36 am

no, more playoffs = mo money

hugolizard · Post #9 » by **hugolizard** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:49 am

SaveOurBullets wrote:^I could argue that the NBA model is bad for anything as well. People are always defending what the league is doing by using money as a reason...last time I checked, the NBA was doing horribly in the financial department. Maybe it's time to experiment with some things.

Teams going on autopilot is bad as well. For at least a few teams, the regular season is meaningless. That is a HUGE problem. Seriously, I heard a bunch of people talking about how the Lakers and especiall the Celtics should essentially coast through the season without really trying, then wait until the playoffs. Can anyone else see how bad that is?

The Celtics and the Lakers would make the playoffs regardless of if there are 8 or 16 playoff seeds. The problem with 8 playoff seeds is that too many teams would have no hope of making the playoffs even before the season starts. If you ask fans of say the Clippers, Warriors, Kings, etc I'm sure they would all they you their teams should make the playoffs or at least be competitive next season. Even after a rough start, people will still refer to their last xxx games after a good stretch and say see my team could finish out the season playing .700 ball. Having hope is very important for casual fans who refuses to believe only a few teams every season has a chance to win the chip.

CoffeeJanitor · Post #10 » by **CoffeeJanitor** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:51 am

darth_federer wrote:No. Then I wouldnt watch the league.

You don't represent everyone, which is what the NBA should be targeting.

To the OP, yeah, they should follow the MLB's playoff setup. The NBA is much too predictable as it is (I don't see why fans defend it so much).

EDIT: 7 and 8 seed fans shouldn't really have any hope at all.

GreenHat · Post #11 » by **GreenHat** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:27 am

I actually hope MLB expands the playoffs like they are planning to do. The only reason why they use 4 teams instead of 8 is because of pitcher arm strain. MLB would be way more exciting if twice as many teams made the playoffs.

Plus there have been big upsets in the playoffs before and good series in the first round. And fans of young teams love seeing their teams make the playoffs. Why change it so that they are out of it 30 games in.

In the baseball model the regular season would pretty much be over now. There would be 5 teams fighting for 4 spots in the East and the 4 spots in the West would already be decided.

Bunzilla · Post #12 » by **Bunzilla** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:37 pm

CoffeeJanitor wrote:You don't represent everyone, which is what the NBA should be targeting.

To the OP, yeah, they should follow the MLB's playoff setup. The NBA is much too predictable as it is (I don't see why fans defend it so much).

EDIT: 7 and 8 seed fans shouldn't really have any hope at all.

Neither do you or the OP. That came off sort of toolish, dude.

Fact of the matter is that 80-90% of the NBA fans I talk to gripe about a few different things: The officiating, the players whining, their teams/players lack of success/team management. Not a single one outside of this board has ever complained about the playoff format.

Here's something else to ponder, fans of teams that even just squeak into the playoffs are more likely to spend money on their teams. The teams are also more likely to attract key pieces via free-agency. While good for the league (it's not the playoffs that are losing the league money), those two things are a helluva lot better for the fans.

The MLB playoffs were/are the most predictable playoffs in the North American sports. Don't get that point.

jefe · Post #13 » by **jefe** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 1:20 pm

Rupert Murdoch wrote:make the playoffs from each conference every year? Let's face the facts. There are only five or six teams in any given year that have a legitimate shot at taking home the title. It doesn't make much sense to have 16 playoff teams. If the NBA has only eight teams make the playoffs every year, every regular season NBA game becomes more meaningful. There will be fewer teams who play like they're on auto-pilot. The NBA playoffs is way too long anyway. What's wrong with reducing a couple weeks to the postseason?

I think it's the contrary actually. With a 8 team playoff, more teams are out of the running earlier in the season - so more teams likely go into tank mode (i.e. meaningless games) for more games.

Soap345 · Post #14 » by **Soap345** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:19 pm

The 6th seed rockets are the only reason I do not think that there should be only 4.

That being said, the fact that more teams make the playoffs then dont, is absurd.

Big Shamrock · Post #15 » by **Big Shamrock** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:26 pm

The motivation for keeping it the same is obvious. Money.

Having 16 teams, more than half of the total amount, make the playoffs is a joke. Hell, there's gonna be a couple teams in the East who get into the playoffs with a sub-.500 record.

I'd love for them to chop it in half, at least when I look at the East. Everybody wants to see the top four, Boston, Miami, Orlando, and Chicago. Everything else is irrelevant, besides maybe seeing New York back in the playoffs for once.

CoffeeJanitor · Post #16 » by **CoffeeJanitor** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:30 pm

Bunzilla wrote:The MLB playoffs were/are the most predictable playoffs in the North American sports. Don't get that point.

Dude, fans of teams that just squeak into the playoffs have no hope anyway. Give me an example of a 7th or 8th seed that did any damage. And no, not just the first round. Hell, even if you can find any I'm sure it's only happened once in a blue moon so its probably irrelevant. But find some examples.

And MLB playoffs are anything but predictable, outside of the Twins losing yearly to the Yanks. These kind nof comments tell me you really don't follow the MLB. The MLB has had 9 or 10 different champs in the last 10 years! How is that in any way predictable?

In the NBA you can chalk up the top 2-3 teams every freaking year at the beginning of the season. There is something very wrong with that IMO.

tidho · Post #17 » by **tidho** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:37 pm

CoffeeJanitor wrote:...In the NBA you can chalk up the top 2-3 teams every freaking year at the beginning of the season. There is something very wrong with that IMO.

Nothing they do with the playoff format is going to change that. The only way they can correct that is by calling the games evenly for everyone. Stern is far less likely to do that than chop revenue generating playoff series.

Speaking of which, many teams need those playoff series to generate revenue. Without it even more would lose money. Its also an economic win for the hosting cities. Fans are willing to spend on the expanded playoff formats so there is really no downside.

illiance · Post #18 » by **illiance** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 5:17 pm

Could you imagine the tanking if their was only 4 spots in each conference? The last month of baseball is awful becasue 60% of teams are using their minor league team because they have already been eliminated.

Right now in the East, there would be probably only 7 teams in the East with any incentive to try at all. Fans of the 9 other teams would have nothing to care about and wouldn't show up for games.

AdamTheGreek · Post #19 » by **AdamTheGreek** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 5:20 pm

It's about the money and the fact that it's cool to see an 8 seed or 7 seed pull off a rare upset.

Reservoirdawgs · Post #20 » by **Reservoirdawgs** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 5:23 pm

I do like MLB's model...making the playoffs actually means something, unlike the NBA where half of the teams make the playoffs. The NBA postseason just goes on forever and gets boring pretty quickly.